Grateful Dead Archival Live Release Thread

Those Europe shows are missing here in Finland as well, must be some weird licensing thing? Luckily I've had the mp3s of the Jahrhunderthalle show shared with me and Rheinhalle can be resequenced from Rocking the Rhein. Missing the second Tivoli show and Hamburg hurts, though.

Can you buy these digitally?

 

It was suggested on this forum a while back that they excluded previously released shows, which suggests licensing. The Tivoli show is available on DVD. I think Bremen was televised, but it doesn't explain why Hamburg is missing. Not to my knowledge anyway.

I'm not aware of these shows being available digitally elsewhere.

 

no idea how things work in Finland in terms of what you can buy, etc so please forgive my ignorance. But, Amazon US store has these in mp3

I'm always happy to share as well if you want - let me know!

 

Winterland 1973: The Complete Recordings was released in 2008. According to my calendar we'll be covering them next year!

 

It’s get brought up often, but I too wish there was a way to purchase these files digitally. I don’t see what dead.net has to lose there. This that purchased the physical product have something the rest of us never will, but I would gladly pay $100 for the flacs of these older boxes (and have with June 1976). Keep the physical product limited but don’t limit the music. The only choice is to pirate when there are preppie who would gladly pay for old Dave’s picks, the Fillmore box, Winterland, etc.

 

Thanks for the tip and the offer! I'll have to check if Amazon will let me have these when I get paid. A little afraid it will let me check them out but somehow stop me from actually downloading them, we'll see.

 

Hamburg and the second Tivoli are available as FLAC files from nugs.net, at least in the US. 4/24/72 and 4/26/72 appear only to be available as Hundred Year Hall and Rockin' the Rhein, but maybe available otherwise on the site if you poke around more than I did.

 

BS

 

Oops - 4/24 and 4/26/72. Fixed above.

 

Maybe should be renamed bzfgt zyndrome (BZ) to avoid confusion with other types of BS.

 

I always have an initial flash of surprise/anger before I remember that it stands for something different on the Dead-related threads...

 

I have a really hard time accepting that I was busy when Winterland '77 was released and now I'll never have an official 6/9/77.

 

As the man said, you just gotta poke around.

 

Pulling this back on topic...

This one took a bit of time to grow on me initially when it was released. I think primarily because I was just really getting into the Dead and didn't have a lot of '74 shows so wasn't quite used to that sound. Giving this some replays this past week and on a better system than what I would have been listening to in 1996 (car or desktop combo unit), Dick really nailed it if this was going to be a compilationensuction.

CD1: Always enjoy when the standalone Scarlets come up because I'm a you can't have one without the other type when it comes to Scarlet/Fire, but the '74 Scarlets (and some of the '76) are really cool keeping some of the bounce of the studio but lacking some of the groove that would develop post-retirement with the song. The rest of the disc are nice first set selections that don't stand out for me, but certainly nothing in there to skip. Then we get to the Playing and liftoff! When this was released, I hadn't heard that many Playings so the HYH version was kind of a baseline for me, and this was not what I was expecting. But quickly grew on me with the steady mostly jazzy jam. Very cool how much this song progressed in the few years from '71 to '74.

CD2: Jeez, everything is a highlight on this disc. Nearly 30 minutes of WRS/Stella Blue that goes by without feeling like the endurance it could. The highlight of this disc is the big Truckin/Jam, but the Big River that proceeds is another smokin' version. Love the boogie woogie Keith has going on. Really dig the overall balance/mix Kidd was able to capture on this. Not sure when they started doing it, but listening to this reminded me how much I love the looping/cascading jam the band gets into near the end Truckin'. Never get sick of that.

CD3: Yes, this has a Dark Star/Dew, but the highlight for me is the Not Fade Away which perfectly captures the '74 Dead element. Not quite as electrifying as the Skull/Roses or '72 era versions, but the band gets into such a cool groove on this one.

Overall a great job by Dick to curate these shows into this pick although I agree with the earlier comments that the 9/11/74 Seastones->Eyes->Jam->Warf Rat should have been included to make this a 4 disc set.

 

If I recall right, in those days Dick would leak the dates and tracklists of the DPs before they went on sale, but there was enough controversy about the missing 9/11/74 set that he got annoyed and didn't release any details about the next DP (5/2/70) before it was released.

 

Yes, the Save Your Face blogger published some of Dick's comments in their correspondence from the '90s, and he referred to that in one email from 5/21/97:

“Today the video crew is coming out from Boston to interview me about the next "Dick's Picks". The announcement of what this release will be, is going to be made on 6/14/97, on VH-1, and on the internet and at our tape playing party at the Fillmore that night. After the disaster of how DP #7 was analyzed and dissected even before the release was made, we have easily come to the conclusion that we shall tell nobody ever again, and maybe just maybe Deadheads that do find out, will be able to keep their mouths shut so as to not spoil the surprise for the rest of us. We shall see.”

As it happened, Dick was upset about how the VH-1 reveal for DiP 8 played out, too. Evidently the event was sidetracked by questions about why they weren't releasing 5/8/77:

I have to say that I'm pretty embarassed about that "infomercial" onVH-1, June 14. It was not at all the way I wanted to announce the winner of the date for the next "Dick's Picks". (5/2/70 that is) And I'm even more emotionally out of control about how much time was devoted to the show from Ithaca, N.Y. (5/8/77) I really am puzzled about why people want this show to be "officially" released, when there are perfect copies available from almost any taper. I think there are better shows from that era, even that month!”

Letters from Latvala

 

Not sure why DP7 didn't catch me the first few times I listened to it. I hadn't heard as much of 1974 (which has become my favorite year). I'm listening to disc 3 now. The NFA is terrific and this Dark Star is about to get weird. Phil just played a few notes of the Elastic Ping Pong Jam around the 7 minute mark, but the offering was rejected.
Like many of the curated early Dick's Picks, this whole run probably deserves a full box set. But not until 2/13-14/70!

 

But that's almost fifty years from now.

 

I really like the soft bluesy jam towards the end of Dark Star before the verse starts. Of all the themes they sometimes coalesce into during DS/TOO/PITB, this is an unusually simple choice.

 

Same here, don't be shy

 

Thread guide

List of releases

By Release Date

• One from the Vault (1975-08-13 San Francisco, released 1991-04-15)
• Infrared Roses (1989-1990, released 1991-11-01)
• Two from the Vault (1968-08-24 San Francisco, released May 1992)
• Dick’s Picks 1 (1973-12-19 Tampa, released 1991-10-31)
• Dick’s Picks 2 (1971-10-31 Columbus, released March 1995)
• Grayfolded (1968-1993, released 1994 and 1995)
• Hundred Year Hall (1972-04-26, released 1995-09-26)
• Dick’s Picks 3 (1977-05-22 Pembroke Pines, released 1995-11-07)
• Dick’s Picks 4 (1970-02-13, 14 New York, released 1996-02-23)
• Dick’s Picks 5 (1979-12-26 Oakland, released 1996-05-30)
• Dozin' at the Knick (1990-03-24 Albany (mostly), released 1996-08-29)
• Dick's Picks 6 (1983-10-14 Hartford, released 1996-10-07)
• Dick's Picks 7 (1974-09-09, 10, 11 London, released 1997-03-04)

By Concert Date

• Various (released 1994 and 1995 on Grayfolded)
• 1968-08-24 Los Angeles (released 1992-05 on Two from the Vault)
• 1970-02-13, 14 New York (released 1996-02-23 on Dick's Picks 4)
• 1971-10-31 Columbus (released 1995-03 on Dick's Picks 2)
• 1972-04-26 Frankfurt (released 1995-09-26 on Hundred Year Hall)
• 1973-12-19 Tampa (released 1993-10-31 on Dick's Picks 1)
• 1974-09-09, 10, 11 London (released 1997-03-04 on Dick's Picks 7)
• 1975-08-13 San Francisco (released 1991-04-15 on One from the Vault)
• 1977-05-22 Pembroke Pines (released 1995-11-07 on Dick's Picks 3)
• 1979-12-26 Oakland (released 1996-05-30 on Dick's Picks 5)
• 1983-10-14 Hartford (released 1996-10-07 on Dick's Picks 6)
• 1989, 1990 (released 1991-11-01 on Infrared Roses)
• 1990-03-24 Albany (mostly) (released 1996-08-29 on Dozin' at the Knick)

This week: 1970-05-02 Binghamton (released 1997-06-14 on Dick's Picks 8)
Next week: Various (released 1997-06-17 on Fallout from the Phil Zone)

 

Dick's Picks Volume 8

Recording date: May 2, 1970
Recording location: Harpur College, Binghamton, New York
Release date: June 14, 1997
Recorded by: Bob Matthews

Disc 1 (First Set)

1. "Don't Ease Me In" (traditional) – 4:38
2. "I Know You Rider" (traditional) – 7:51
3. "Friend of the Devil" (Garcia, Dawson, Hunter) – 5:57
4. "Dire Wolf" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:56
5. "Beat It on Down the Line" (Fuller) – 3:13 ->
6. "Black Peter" (Garcia, Hunter) – 7:02
7. "Candyman" (Garcia, Hunter) – 1:43 ->
8. "Cumberland Blues" (Garcia, Hunter, Lesh) – 5:47
9. "Deep Elem Blues" (traditional) – 7:30
10. "Cold Jordan" (traditional) – 2:35
11. "Uncle John's Band" (Garcia, Hunter) – 6:28

Disc 2 (Second Set)

1. "St. Stephen" (Garcia, Hunter, Lesh) – 3:23 ->
2. "Cryptical Envelopment" (Garcia) – 1:54 ->
3. "Drums" (Hart, Kreutzmann) – 3:28 ->
4. "The Other One" (Weir, Kreutzmann) – 13:56 ->
5. "Cryptical Envelopment" (Garcia) – 8:59 ->
6. "Cosmic Charlie" (Garcia, Hunter) – 7:23
7. "Casey Jones" (Garcia, Hunter) – 4:45
8. "Good Lovin'" (Resnick, Clark) – 15:10

Disc 3 (Second Set Continued)

1. "It's a Man's World" (Brown, Jones, Newsome) – 10:04
2. "Dancing in the Streets" (Stevenson, Gaye, I. Hunter) – 15:42
3. Third set - "Morning Dew" (Dobson, Rose) – 12:40
4. "Viola Lee Blues" (Lewis) – 16:35 ->
5. "We Bid You Goodnight" (traditional) – 4:59

I make no apologies for being over the top on this release - in my opinion this epic show may be the finest concert the Grateful Dead ever played. I had never heard this concert before this Pick and it completely sealed my love for the band. The electric set is recorded in mono, but that's a small price to pay for the quality of the music; in any case, the mono recording is surprisingly deep and enjoyable, and really comes alive at very high volumes.

The first disc contains a fabulous acoustic set. Don’t Ease Me In seems like a warmup, but I Know You Rider is stunning. I remember hearing this for the first time and being totally floored; this is totally different but just as amazing as it just rolls along, and the band is totally together. Even the vocals sound really good. There’s something special going on here, and we’re only on the second song.

These acoustic songs are all a joy to hear. The tracks from Workingman’s Dead and American Beauty are exquisite in this format (including a not-yet-completed Candyman). The whole set is a highlight; the band is relaxed and having lots of fun, joking with the audience yet playing at the highest level. Electric instruments creep in during Cumberland Blues and some New Riders join them for the gospel Cold Jordan (under-rehearsed but still fun). Uncle John’s Band is the perfect ending to this super set.

The tuning is included, and it adds to the ambience; the audience enthusiasm and the impact it has on the band are palpable. “You got to start acting like a mature, responsible audience!” The energy is truly electric.

Speaking of electric, the second set fades in during St. Stephen, and it seems like a typical version. A standard Cryptical Envelopment and Drums gives no inkling of what’s to follow. The Other One is impossibly energetic, driving forward out of control, possibly the best version the band ever played, and ending with a long, relaxed-then-intense Cryptical outro.

Cosmic Charlie and Casey Jones are solid versions. But the next real highlight is the Pigpen vessel, Good Lovin'. Most of the last ten minutes consist of a manic jam where the band is playing with a seeming telepathy; there’s no Pigpen rap but he sings the vocals with conviction. It’s a contender for best-ever version.

Pigpen gets the spotlight again on a rollicking version of It’s a Man's World, a rare song in the catalog. Jerry punctuates each of Pigpen’s vocal lines with a unique guitar line and it all works perfectly. Dancing In The Streets is again all about the extended and varied jams which magically find their way back to the song’s theme, and we have yet another contender for best-ever version.

Whether it’s a third set or a long encore, the concluding sequence is beyond impressive. Things get very emotional with a powerful Morning Dew; Jerry’s singing with a lot of emotion, and the music matches the mood perfectly. This isn’t the playful Dead from the second set, but a totally different band, one that’s making a statement. After a short pause, the distinctive chugging rhythm of Viola Lee Blues starts up. It contains three distinct climaxes, each longer and wilder than the last with some great Jerry soloing leading into each one. The third build-up is unbelievable, as the music builds into a screaming, chaotic peak and suddenly drops back into the song as if nothing had happened; the audience meltdown comes across even on the old tape. Have I said best-ever-version enough yet? A brief Feedback leads into a long We Bid You Goodnight, the perfect ending to this astounding show.

Packaging remains very basic, but there’s an article from the local university newspaper from a couple of days after the show; it’s a hilarious must-read.

If I had that time machine and I could use it to see one concert, this would be the one. From start to finish this is pure magic with several songs that are arguably the best versions ever played. If you haven’t heard it, you need to fix that as soon as possible.

 

Anyone want to get in the time machine and tell him what happened?

 

Dick's Picks 8

Believe the hype!

Oh, you want more? Well, thanks to Real Gone it's my latest Dead acquisition and Binghamton is but a swallow's flight* away I could say it's a local gig**.

Yes, the acoustic set is stereo and the electric set isn't. Yes, there's probably a better source on the Internet Archive.

But you probably already know how great this show is so instead I leave with this poem.

Ronlingem a uedesfa ti dàlit onayty redeud equ itaea tügou yeirar thaynn i dru ineimeori siite þdor ierel ófydi eseich bednwán haiþpl nilharogðt mreþþ e anaw ent àegehan daneeþi ragunofsy aretin meriti thocu asu ititeor kam y aheiam othþish eesehh aeße ðiy ihne itat rosto apiada ytnerna þy gá aak brodweruæ nenei ðtgeh ohey inem dîþi neßrano rrhoea ediraath weneaðcy te hsenanði be guisœe tahtšetsi ihræotf ctðai rztnilîkay ehdaa eev onneyaw sany þiámg aanksàhdy eðfn renn eet ytrtapror inþn distete ulfitie geih awhofmo adontad sinervupi ingar edaeh thidya esuk masta tnses nneesha nayidbahø ig tieteing taisah ase iosuðkudel tfidl yðst lle inev edath inhbeifso avlentat ltafnech taiitfe reeino eðko yyivv ðnuedeede toh oyhwide yaþaedoas þinarfe ismybr onat tolus ðarin vtgut dnowoll ahaw þþaþmdya itotohg nrsivaa aodo hes æntehno ku rolgi ðtwaw eof fse tah fwonnoingi iah salse hùðnorm e ourrom nȝeþe ogryrret eeâwusa nang olakop oniheri quaee shbuks oniæþ seyrept edewsiepi þydss eret eed anhtæs ya wymogan tioyða e tuknu asebm mdhy nokun ornur šeþubile i naedywo oreedeb aet icabueno inarwao tdattiþt eûn kaöbaþi coro ttid iilg åâri eðehareþat thedyansi ðoraci lkaye wþergha ðikbeiso ihb a heitouḍa gdyu sonerþ iþþuv ddo atewhiugt dtit uhrelnaen trovel mlosy ioahotþit okes ingoti eneha invywila eningal niednonl dafaeyb deertesel aoenne e ru ȝmy edeue rknü ofndi esed vigen sðoprrem ãttþ ein inatuyl enlahó niede ietek easwae wpanse seennodoos maohpoþa geetrlee nahaahno rhuyob rȝau œfôerat efoserœy hunr vee þtd ñoyho tabr iges snïúðkal a âhtri aknaeb ba eneel danuv te patarue oieweed þda aegoþeti toba.

*that's an unladen swallow's flight, obviously. I mean, they were more than two laden swallows' flights away-- four, really, if they had a coconut on a line between them. I mean, if the birds were walking and dragging--
**okay, it's a local gig

 

Somone just read that and thought, "man, reality; what a concept."